Month: August 2024

The largest diamond found in more than a century has been unearthed at a mine in Botswana, and the country’s president showed off the fist-sized stone to the world at a viewing ceremony Thursday.

“They (diamonds) mean everything to us in good times and bad times,” Botswana President Mokgweetsi Masisi said.

He gasped and said “wow” before calling senior government officials over to take a closer look.

The as-yet-unnamed diamond was presented to the world at the office of Botswana Masisi. It weighs approximately half a kilogram and Masisi was one of the first to hold it.

The Botswana government says the huge 2,492-carat diamond is the second-biggest ever discovered in a mine. It’s the biggest diamond found since 1905.

Officials said it was too early to value the stone or decide how it would be sold. Another smaller diamond from the same mine in Botswana was sold for $63 million in 2016, a record for a rough gem.

“It’s the largest stone discovered in the world through a processing plant,” said Naseem Lahri, Botswana managing director for Lucara Diamond Corp., the Canadian mining company that found the diamond.

“The reason we’re able to recover this diamond is because of the technology that we use, which is XRT (X-ray transmission), so that is why we’re so proud of this”, she said.

Lucara said in a statement Wednesday that it recovered the “exceptional” rough diamond from its Karowe Mine in central Botswana.

“We are ecstatic about the recovery of this extraordinary 2,492-carat diamond,” Lucara President and CEO William Lamb said in a statement.

The weight would make it the largest diamond found in 119 years and the second-largest ever dug out of a mine after the Cullinan Diamond that was discovered in South Africa in 1905. The famous Cullinan was 3,106 carats and was cut into gems, some of which form part of the British Crown Jewels.

A bigger, less pure black diamond was discovered in Brazil in the late 1800s, but it was found above ground and was believed to have been part of a meteorite.

Botswana, a country of 2.6 million people in southern Africa, is the second-biggest producer of natural diamonds behind Russia and has unearthed all of the world’s biggest stones in recent years. The Karowe Mine has produced four other diamonds over 1,000 carats in the last decade.

Before this discovery, the Sewelo diamond, which was found at the Karowe Mine in 2019, was recognized as the second-biggest mined diamond in the world at 1,758 carats. It was bought by French fashion house Louis Vuitton for an undisclosed amount.

The 1,111-carat Lesedi La Rona diamond, also from Botswana’s Karowe Mine, was bought by a British jeweller for $53 million in 2017. Another diamond from Karowe, The Constellation, was sold for the record $63 million.

Diamonds are formed when carbon atoms are squeezed together under high pressure deep underground. Scientists say most diamonds are at least a billion years old and some of them more than three billion.

Kenyan police have announced a $1,500 reward for information leading to the capture of Collins Jumaisi, a suspected serial killer who escaped from a Nairobi police cell on Tuesday. Jumaisi, who has been dubbed a “vampire” by authorities, is accused of murdering and dismembering 42 women over a two-year period. He broke out of a police station in an upscale area of the capital, alongside 12 Eritreans.

Jumaisi was arrested last month after police discovered mutilated female bodies in a rubbish dump in Nairobi’s Mukuru slum. Among his victims was his wife, who was reportedly his first kill. Despite his confession to the murders, Jumaisi claims he was tortured during his detention.

Five police officers have been implicated in his escape, but they were released on bond after a court hearing on Wednesday, despite prosecutors’ attempts to keep them in custody. The officers allegedly helped Jumaisi and the others escape by cutting through a wire mesh roof and scaling a perimeter wall.

The escape has sparked outrage in Kenya, particularly as it comes just months after another high-profile suspect escaped custody in Nairobi. The Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI) has urged the public to come forward with credible information, promising a significant cash reward for Jumaisi’s recapture. Meanwhile, Kenya’s police watchdog, the Independent Police Oversight Authority, is investigating possible police involvement or negligence in both the killings and the escape.

This case has intensified scrutiny on Kenyan police, who are frequently accused of misconduct and extrajudicial killings, yet rarely face accountability.

Israel’s economy is suffering from its nearly 11-month long war with Hamas, as its leaders grind ahead with its offensive in Gaza that shows no signs of ending and threatens to escalate into a wider conflict.

The country’s deficit is up, credit ratings are down, the tourism industry is flailing, and state expenditures are mired in controversy.

The cost of rebuilding areas in the south and north of the country, compensating families of victims, and strengthening Israel’s defense systems has placed a massive strain on the economy.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has tried to allay concerns by saying the damage is only temporary, but the war has hurt thousands of small businesses and compromised international trust in an economy once thought of as an entrepreneurial dynamo.

Leading economists say a cease-fire is the only way to stop the damage.

The United States, Qatar and Egypt are straining to seal a deal that would bring an end to the war and exchange scores of Israeli hostages for Palestinian prisoners, but success has proved elusive.

The war began on October 7, when Hamas militants stormed southern Israel, killing some 1,200 people and taking 250 people hostage.

More than 40,000 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza, the territory’s Health Ministry said.

Since the beginning of the war, rockets fired from Gaza and from Hezbollah militants in Lebanon has led to the evacuation of tens of thousands of people from their homes and wreaked large-scale damage.

Israel’s economy has recovered from previous shocks, like COVID-19 and past wars with Hamas.

The vibrant high-tech sector, the main engine of the economy, appears to be rebounding from a slowdown when the war broke out late last year.

But the drawn-out conflict and the threat of further escalation with Iran and its Lebanese proxy, Hezbollah, has had an especially harsh impact on small businesses, shipping, and the tourism industry.

In Jerusalem’s Old City, nearly all souvenir shops have closed.

Even Jerusalem’s iconic American Colony hotel has had to lay off workers and are mulling pay cuts, said Jeremy Berkovitz, the official representative of the owners.

“We did consider at one point closing for a few months,” said Berkovitz.

“That would mean sacking all the staff, it would have meant letting the gardens which we’ve developed over 120 years go fallow.”

In Haifa’s flea market, merchants set up their wares forlornly.

“Now, there are no tourists, not very much,” said Meir Sabag, an antiques dealer whose shop sat empty.

He said business is worse now than it was during the COVID-19 pandemic.

On a recent weekday, the formerly bustling port of Haifa, where massive container ships would stop on transnational voyages and a major hub of Israeli import-export, sat still.

With Yemen’s Houthi rebel group endangering ships passing through Egypt’s Suez Canal, many long-haul tankers have stopped using Israeli ports as refueling points, said a port official who spoke on the condition of anonymity because he was sharing internal information.

Sheinin said that the best way to help the economy bounce back would be to end the war.

“But,” he cautioned. “If we are stubborn and continue this war, we will not recover.”

Somalia has issued a warning to suspend all Ethiopian Airlines flights to its territory due to an ongoing territorial dispute.

The Somali Civil Aviation Authority (SCAA) announced on August 21, 2024, that the airline has failed to respond to concerns related to Somali sovereignty.

The dispute escalated after Ethiopia signed an agreement in January 2024 with the separatist region of Somaliland, securing access to 20 kilometers of Somaliland’s coastline for 50 years in exchange for recognizing the territory.

Somalia views this deal as a direct violation of its sovereignty, heightening tensions between the two countries.

The SCAA also expressed frustration over Ethiopian Airlines’ recent actions, including the removal of Somali destination names from its systems, which the SCAA believes undermines Somalia’s sovereignty.

Ethiopian Airlines has been given a deadline of August 23, 2024, to address these issues, or all flights to Somalia will be suspended.

Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger have petitioned the president of the UN Security Council to denounce what they call the Ukrainian government’s “open support for international terrorism” in the Sahel.

A letter dated August 19 and signed by the envoys to the UN of the three Sahelian countries was released on Tuesday (Aug. 20).

The move follows recent comments by Ukrainian officials who said that Kyiv had played a role in attacks by separatist rebels in Tinzawaten, northeastern Mali.

Andriy Yusov, a spokesperson for Ukraine’s military spy agency, mentioned on television that Malian rebels received the “necessary” information to carry out the attack.

In late July, Tuareg rebels claimed responsibility for the losses inflicted on the Malian armed forces. They claimed killing at least 84 Russian Wagner mercenaries and 47 Malian soldiers.

Andriy Yusov later on retracted his remarks.

In the letter sent to the UN security Council president, the foreign ministers of the Alliance of the Sahel States (AES) countries are urging the Security Council to act to prevent new subversive and destabilizing actions.

They said the comments by Ukrainian officials some states play in the expansion of terrorism in the Sahel.

The United Nations Charter gives the Security Council primary responsibility for maintaining international peace and security.

Senegalese Prime Minister Ousmane Sonko officially set up Monday (Aug. 19) a commission tasked with reviewing the oil and gas contracts the country signed with multinational corporations.

The PM made the announcement on national TV insisting that the team of legal, tax, and energy sector experts will work meticulously to make sure all legal aspects are carefully examined.

Sonko brushed off rumours of nationalization reiterating his government’s ambition to rebalance the energy contracts in the national interest.

The move comes after Senegal became an oil producer. Australia’s Woodside Energy announced in June that its Sangomar oil and gas field had produced its first oil.

Gas production from the GTA project should also kick off this year.

It remains to be seen what the commission’s recommendations will be and in the event of negotiations if the expected changes can be implemented.

The move was a campaign promise of the Faye administration.

Ukraine’s attack on Russia’s Kursk region has ended “any possibility” of peace negotiations, said Maria Zakharova, spokeswoman for the Russian Foreign Ministry during her briefing in Moscow on Wednesday.

“Who will negotiate with them after this, after the atrocities, the terror that they are committing against peaceful residents, the civilian population, civilian infrastructure and peaceful facilities? This attempt by the Ukrainian Armed Forces to invade our territory a priori, I will emphasize once again what was said by the Russian leadership, a priori, annuls any possibility of any negotiations with the bandit junta,” she asked.

On Aug. 6, Ukrainian forces made a lightning push into the region, seizing villages, taking hundreds of prisoners and forcing the evacuation of tens of thousands of civilians.

Russia was caught unprepared by the offensive and reportedly is drafting conscripts to repel some of Ukraine’s most battle-hardened units.

Russian cities have come under drone attacks and shelling from Kyiv’s forces.

China on Wednesday urged the European Union to stop “politicizing” trade issues after the EU released a draft decision to finalize tariffs on electric vehicles made in China.

The EU’s draft decision on final EV tariffs made mostly minor modifications to the provisional rates announced last month.

Autos exported by BYD, the largest EV maker in China, would face a 17% tariff, while those from Shanghai-based SAIC Motor would be hit with the highest rate of 36.3%.

In Beijing, China’s Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mao Ning once again denounced the tariff plan, saying it was politically motivated.

The tariffs are subject to the approval of the EU member states. A final decision must be made by early November, four months after the July 5 effective date of the provisional tariffs.

At the daily briefing, Mao said China was “seriously concerned” about a reported approval by the Biden administration of a secret nuclear strategic paper with a focus on China.

The classified paper passed in March underscored China’s rapid expansion in its nuclear arsenal which would soon compete with that of the US and Russia in terms of size and diversity, according to an American media report.

Separately, Mao pushed back against Taiwan President Lai Ching-te’s criticisms of China’s “military aggression” in the seas surrounding Taiwan at a forum Wednesday.

Mao also commented on a report that Beijing began requiring Hong Kong-based foreign consular officials to seek Chinese authorities’ approval ten days ahead of their business visit to the Greater Bay Area, including Macao and southern Guangdong province.

Without confirming the report directly, Mao said foreign consular officials should obtain China’s “consent in advance” if they planned to visit areas outside their consular district for business purposes according to the Vienna Convention on Consular Relations.

Hong Kong media said the new rule could complicate the diplomat’s business visit since they would be asked to explain the reason for the trips, the personnel, times and venues involved, and any department that foreign officials plan to visit to get the permit.